Small warships don’t just carry out missions, notes retired Navy Capt. Wayne Hughes, author of the standard book on fleet tactics. They also give younger officers a chance to command a warship, long before trying to do so with cruisers and carriers. Likewise, they give the Navy a chance to evaluate skippers, and screen out the officers who just aren’t cut out for the job.

The USS William D. Porter — “Willie Dee” to her crew — was a War World II destroyer, and is arguably the unluckiest ship in the history of the world. She lasted less than two years, until her ill-fated demise in June of 1945, according to a piece originally published in The Retired Officer Magazine by historian Kit Bonner in 1994.